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Monthly Archives: October 2007

I read with great interest that the government is looking to encourage (maybe coerce is a better word) all sporting codes to follow what they believe is the most appropriate path for reporting illicit drug use used by their participants.
The AFL Players association is resisting this approach which should bring a degree of angst to the bible-thumping moral high ground crew.
Personally, I think it should be mandatory for all professional people who are in the public eye to be subjected to not only drug tests, but also moral and ethical analysis as well as lie, alcohol and smoking tests.
After all, it’s not only the sportsmen that are the “role models” for our children. All politicians should be subjected to independent audits of all their financial affairs, their decision making, and if there is any discrepancies found, they’ll be publicly outed, with no recourse on their behalf.
Policemen and women, nurses, firemen, ministers, lawyer, doctors and economists will all be subject to drug, alcohol and smoking tests, because they are the greatest category of role models for children (maybe not accountants, but hey, prop them up a little) and any indication that they might have ever been near anything illegal (maybe a parking fine or two, speeding is a no-no) then straight to Murdoch/Packer and an outing.
How would people feel about that ? Frankly, I’m personally fucking disgusted that anybody would use a group of young professionals and take the moral high ground and get that groups professional code to do the job of police and lawmakers.
Let’s be honest here, how much effect on Cousins’ on field performance was there from the drugs ? Certainly that must be giving the conservative right the conniptions given how fantastic he’s kept his performance and body during this so called “destructive binge”.
We need to educate our children, and our young professionals of the dangers on relying on drugs to fill a void in their lives, and how all-consuming addiction of many forms can be, but let’s face facts here; compare the AFL players with say, musicians and other people in the entertainment industry for a fair comparison of drug use. Both groups are dominated by relatively young individuals, normally single, with a large amount of disposable income, and a large amount of free time.
I’d say AFL players stack up pretty damn well. Of course, that doesn’t score any political mileage.